ibpsychrevision - Internal Assessment

Standard Level

Descriptive stats only - mean, standard deviation, range
1000-1500 words

Higher Level

Descriptive and Inferential stats (e.g. t-test, Mann Whitney U)
1500-2000 words

NB: Do not use the word prove. In psychology we only disprove null hypotheses and gain support for research/alternative hypotheses. Any time you think you want to use the word prove replace it with suggest

Title Page

Title
Student name and number
Psychology SL/HL
Date, month and year of submission
Word count (excluding figure labels, references, appendix and abstract)

Abstract

Brief synopsis of the entire report
200 words
Does not count towards overall word count

Introduction

History of the topic to be investigated
Identify and explain the specific study being replicated
Lead up to aim of the study
HL state hypotheses here

Methods

Design

Justify experimental design chosen (repeated measures, independent measures)
Identify the experimental groups and controls used
Identify the independent and dependent variables
Include informed consent for ethical considerations

Participants

Identify the sampling technique used (usually opportunity sample)
Characterize the sample (number, age, gender, cultural background, native English speakers)
Describe how participants were allocated to experimental conditions (some form of random assignment)

Materials

List any materials used like questionnaires
Reference materials listed to an exemplar in the appendix

Procedure

Describe what you did in the experiment
Use enough detail to make it replicable but make it concise

Results

State measures of central tendency used
State measures of dispersion
Justify choice of descriptive statistics (relate to the level of measurement)
Use graphs and tables to summarize the statistics
HL present inferential stats
Do not interpret the stats just state that condition 1 was greater than condition 2

Discussion

Interpretation of stats and what they suggest (not prove!)
Discuss the findings in light of the previous research mentioned in the introduction
Identify limitations of the research methodology and methods of overcoming any shortcomings
Mention possible confounding variables and how they may have affected the data
- Include where possible how to remedy the confounding variables in future replications
Discuss other sampling methods that may be appropriate such as stratifying the sample

Internal Assessment